Apple Beats the World

The financial world was whipped into a frenzy this week following Standard and Poor's decision to downgrade the United States' credit rating, and Apple investors have been taken for a wild ride.

After the country watched markets crumble on Monday, the Cupertino-based company's stock climbed Tuesday, propelling Apple's market capitalization to briefly surpass that of Exxon. That means for a short while, Apple was the most valuable publicly traded company on the planet at $346.74 billion.

As Wall Street's turbulence came to an end Tuesday, AAPL shares closed at $374.01, a gain for the day of nearly 6 percent but still a far cry from the record high of $404.50 that Apple hit just weeks ago.

The uptick wasn't spurred by any particular announcement from the
company, although rumors that the iPhone 5 will be making its debut
this fall, perhaps as early as September, certainly serve to propel market
confidence.

"This past week wasn't too full of company news, but rather market
news. Obviously the debt situation and the S&P ratings change weighs
heavily on the company, Kevin Dede, analyst and managing director at
Brigantine Advisors, told MacNewsWorld.

"The latest rumor is that the iPhone 5 is coming pretty soon, and
those are the things to look at when seeing the market's reaction to
the re-evaluation."

Patent Battles Continue

The habitual market darling didn't seen to be hampered by patent
battles in which competitors Google and Microsoft became embroiled over
the past week. Although Google lawyer David Drummond named Apple -- along with Microsoft and Oracle -- in a public blog post in which he criticized his rival's "bogus" patent tactics as an attack on Android, it was Redmond that was most visibly drawn into a public tangle.

The public battle was surprising since typically in cases facing
litigation, both sides are advised to stay mum before a decision is
reached. It appears Apple chose to adhere to that policy regarding to its particular
lawsuits.

"I kind of liken it to a porcupine approach from Apple -- both parties
have a lot of quills and neither one wants to get too close," Brian
Marshall, senior equity analyst at Gleacher & Company, told
MacNewsWorld.

Since patent battles are becoming more and more prominent in the mobile
device industry, Apple will have plenty of wars to be won against
other competitors -- as evidenced most recently in a lawsuit filed by
LG that alleges the Mac OS X operating system infringes on a patent related to fast
booting a computer system held by a company called "Operating System Solutions." The patent was originally held by LG, which has raised suspicion that the South Korean Android device maker may be playing a role in this litigation.

With the heavy crossover in "borrowing" technologies from each other,
tech companies like Apple will have to make decisions about whom they
fight.

"They want to choose carefully which battles they take on. Rather than
going head to head with Google and Android, I think Apple, when you're
looking at this whole IP battle, prefers to go after the hardware
vendors as opposed to the platforms," said Marshall.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Upcoming Launches

As September nears, so does the season for new iPods, and this year's batch could include the long-awaited iPhone 5. In addition, a new iTunes features called "iTunes Replay" was rumored to be launching soon, but later reports suggested the company is
still trying to negotiate deals with content providers. The service would let customers download
and stream movies and TV shows they'd already purchased from iTunes.

The technology seems to be in place for the feature, but the hold-up
reportedly relates to the company's attempt to negotiate with film studios, who haven't
been quick to sign on to the arrangement. Negotiations also get
sticky because Apple has agreements with HBO and UltraViolet for exclusive digital download rights. A deal could
most likely be made, but the players may in fact opt to wait it out as
demand goes up.